Pilates

I feel like I've been getting distinctly flabby over the past year and putting on inches and weight as well. So I really do need to start more muscle building exercise as my favourite form of exercise, aikido, may be great for many other things but it's definitely not a good way to lose weight. That plus since I've just been having a lot of problems with my left knee so I need an exercise regime where I'm in a lot of control over what I do.

So I finally braved a pilates class at Amore again where I'm a member. I have discovered that I like the instructor at the Heartland Mall branch a lot more as he's more patient with beginners like me and will actually adapt the positions/movements etc so that people like me with weak core muscles can still derive some benefit and actually do something as opposed to flopping like a fish out of water.

He was distinctly more encouraging this time as well compared to the last time telling the class at the end that those who are just starting out need to be patient with themselves and the class since it takes a while to build the strength in the core.

Looks like over the next few months I'm going to be a bit more regular and try and make it to pilates once a week. My Saturday yoga class is already part of my regular schedule so now I have to step things up on Sunday.

Counter Cultural

I bumped into an old friend at Fr Keane's 50th Jubilee Mass at St Ignatius the other day. And it turned out to be wonderful catching up with her and her husband and four children. Her "socialist" tendencies means that despite her oxford education in law and her husband's being a specialist doctor, they lead a life sans maid, in a HDB apartment in an old estate (albeit newer block) and essentially keep it simple. They live well within their means and she's cheerful and happy as are her husband and children.

They don't preach (at me at any rate) or complain and they said they turned down an offer of a house from her parents because it would mean scaling up their existance to a level which they could not afford ie the house would require a maid and an additional car at the least.

Maybe part of it is sheer rebellion at a life of pretension and status of her parents lifestyle but having seen her through her university days and watched first hand how she interacted with the prisoners in Oxford prison as part of a group of Catholic students helping a priest say mass there, and watched her do other things like go help out with Mother Theresa in the Rome community, etc etc, I'm fairly convinced this is not a youthful rebellion she has yet to grow out of, but a deep seated detachment from material things.

I'm in awe really and greatly heartened. I don't think I could have done the same in her shoes and I'm not necessarily advocating this as a way to live for any of us who have choices otherwise, but I'm awfully glad that she's there as a shining example of how it's possible to not get hung up with the 5Cs and to brush off society's expectations of how it is they should live. Truly some of us really do cut our own paths in this world and she and her husband are doing just that.